Korean Hostages Freed, Allies React, Leftists Rejoice

The remaining Korean hostages have been released and already international reaction to the Korean government’s handling of the crisis has been extremely critical with Canada leading the way:

In a move that could ruffle diplomatic feathers, Canada’s rookie foreign minister took a swipe at South Korea on Thursday for negotiating with the Taliban for the release of a group of hostages.“The Canadian position on dealings with terrorists is well known to all those with even a passing familiarity with the subject,” Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said in a statement.

“We do not negotiate with terrorists, for any reason. Such negotiations, even if unsuccessful, only lead to further acts of terrorism.”

Bernier’s comments, which are unusually harsh for a top diplomat, came just hours before the Taliban released the remaining South Korean hostages. [Canada.com]

Germany as well shared the same sentiment of the Canadians (HT: Nomad):

Opposition Green Party defense spokesman Winfried Nachtwei said he was pleased the hostages had been freed but at a political level it was nothing less than “a political triumph for the Taliban.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government would not change its strategy in light of the release of the Korean hostages. “The situation concerning the South Korean hostages will not change in the way we are dealing with it,” she said. [Deutsche Welle]

If you are wondering why these two nations are so pissed off at Korea right now it is because the Korean government has paid ransom and given political support to a terrorist group that they have shed much blood fighting while the Korean government has spent little political and military capital to fight.  Canada has lost 70 soldiers in Afghanistan which is only behind the blood shed by the US and Britain in Afghanistan.  Additionally the Canadians have been heavily involved in combat operations against the Taliban.

The Germans meanwhile have lost 24 soldier in Afghanistan only behind the US, Britain, and Canada.  The Germans do not conduct combat operations but have been good in providing security assistance in Kabul and the northern areas of Afghanistan which has left them exposed to suicide bombings.  Additionally, both the German and Canadian governments have fought the war in Afghanistan at enormous political costs as the fight against the Taliban has grown increasingly unpopular in their countries.

The financial and political payoff the Koreans gave to the Taliban will have direct impacts on both these countries as the Taliban movement has been energized with their success and has received additional funding to buy weapons and bombs to kill coalition soldiers with, not that the Korean government cares.  Also a German civilian is still being held by the Taliban and the German government has refused to negotiate with them because of their policy of not negotiating with terrorists.  Than the South Korean government comes along and undercuts their policy by holding direct negotiations with the Taliban and meeting their demands, paying a prior $2 million dollar ransom, along with likely more ransom money being laundered through the Saudis.

The biggest losers in all of this is the Afghan government who the Korean government side lined and treated the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan by holding direct negotiations with them.  Let me make an analogy for everyone that should put this into context.  Imagine if the pro-North Korea Hanchongnyun organization kidnapped a group of Canadian English teachers and threatened to kill them unless the Canadian government agreed to withdraw all English teachers and cut all ties with the South Korea government.

What would the South Korean government think if the Canadian government ignored the sovereign government of Korea by negotiating with Hanchongnyun and then prevented the South Korean government from launching any rescue attempts to free the hostages.  Then to top it off the Canadian government then pays off the kidnappers and withdraws all Canadians from South Korea.  This would be a severe undercutting of the legitimacy of the South Korean government and a huge boost to North Korea by Canada by de facto acknowledging a pro-North Korea group as a legitimate government entity in South Korea who determines who comes and goes in South Korea.

If Lee Myung-bak wins the next election for President of South Korea, he will have his hands full trying to rebuild the image and international creditability of the South Korean government.  The best thing he could do to rebuild the image of South Korea within international circles would be by deploying ROK Special Forces immediately upon being elected to hunt these Taliban killers.

While all of this is going on, the Taliban has saw fit to write a letter to the people of Korea.  You can tell they follow the media in Korea by issuing these statements in their letter (HT: Marmot):

Now that we have released the remaining seven captives, we wish to tell the Korean people that we have no enmity toward you. […]

Your government is also partly responsible for the killing of the two Koreans, because, being a partner of the Afghan and American government, it should have forced the two to accept our demands in order to ensure the peaceful release of the hostages. [Korea Times]

For those reading this that may not follow South Korean politics, the anti-US leftists have been blaming the US for the hostage crisis since the day it began and this letter by the Taliban will only embolden them to continue to blame the United States for the brutal murders of two South Korean civilians and the kidnappings of 21 more.  It is a happy day for South Korean leftists as they have now aligned themselves with the brutal Taliban in their efforts to ferment anti-US sentiment in South Korea in their quest for political power.  This really isn’t surprising considering the Korean leftists have long made excuses for the despotic Kim Jong-il regime in North Korea, so why should the Taliban be treated any differently?